Car has been well maintained. 2012 Ford Mustang Automatic. V6. Drove fine all day. I decide to go sit in my car an hour after parked. I turn on the radio without the car on. 15 minutes later I decide to start the car. A warning pops up on the dash “check charging system, service advance trac.” Odometer goes to ——————— with only dashes where the current mileage used to be. Car will not start.
I put the battery on tender over night. I even bring it to autozone for load test. Battery is 100 percent fine. I reconnect the terminals. I got back inside car and the car will not start. The only thing it says is check charging system, service advance trac again. Car will not start. What is wrong with this vehicle? Please help.

 

if it will 'jump start', drive it down to another auto parts store and have the charging system checked while the motor is running. Still sounds like a bad battery to me. Could be a bad cable or alternator too. When my battery started going bad I was getting strange messages like you are getting

 

Took battery to advance auto and they load tested it. Turns out battery is fine. I’m thinking it’s the alternator. It’s getting darker outside earlier which means more time in the garage and under the hood. Thanks for the reply at least one person replied. Anybody else run into a similar issue?

 

This is a shot in the dark but my 2012 GT is giving me the same warning lights, execpt mine decided to quit while I was driving. Could you let me know what happened with yours?

 

Most drivers think the battery does all the electrical work,but in reality its the alternator that powers everything.Even so,the alternator depends solely on the battery for it to even function and charge.The alternator requires a certain value from the battery before it begins to work.12 volts & 2 amps is the values.Once battery voltage drops below 12 volts & 2 amps,the magnetic field is no longer created,so the alternator ceases to function.Below these values,the battery will take over to power everything and it doesn't take long at all for the battery to be drained because of the high power draw of items like the fuel pump, electric cooling fans,etc.Check all of your grounds at both ends for corrosion or a loose cable.Check all fuses/relays related to the battery,alternator & charging system.Check the fused cable/wire that runs between the alternator and battery.Ive heard of guys having issues with this cable/wire developing a bad section in it & shorting to the chassis or an engine part.A short could also cause this fuse to blow/open.If you use a multimeter and touch the fuse on each side with the multimeter leads,the meter will read OL if this fuse has opened up.That would obviously prevent the alternator from charging the battery if it is open.
Ive seen numerous threads where when a charging system issue was occurring,that advance trac system light would also be turned on.Maybe this light automatically pops up anytime the battery voltage drops below a certain value and theres actually nothing wrong at all with the advance trac system?? If the light is valid because of an actual fault,Ive also heard of guys developing a short in the advance trac system wiring that runs to the rear of the car.Apparently the harness gets up against the exhaust pipe on the driver side near where the tailpipe passes over the rear axle housing and the pipe melts the harness wires insulation,causing a short.I don't know if this harness shares a wire with the battery or alternator or not,but if it does,it could possibly create both issues you're having or the advance trac warning light might just be popping up because of the charging system issue.....

 

Quite the mystery. I checked all fuses and relays the correct way and they all appear to be fine. Doesn’t appear that my instrument cluster and PCM are communicating anymore. Could be the PCM or PCM POWER ISSUES. I unplugged the pcm and replugged it back in. The throttle bottle sweep sounds off good. I’m thinking that my pcm is only partially working. Going to say it again, instrument cluster is not talking or even recognizing that the pcm is even there. Could still be alternator but man what a crapshoot.

 

Crapshoot is right. So, the same day that I replied I found out that the powertrain control run/start fuse is what blew and caused my problems. At least that's the best that I can determine what that fuse is considering I had to find a diagram for the box on the internet, because I don't have an owners manual. Anyways I replaced the fuse in it and it cranked and ran fine. The next day I decided to replace the plugs because I needed to fix a misfire she had anyways and I already had bought them. She cranked, I turned her off, went to crank her again and the same fuse blew. I replaced it and she ran fine till today where she went through 4 fuses in a matter of minutes. I'm getting the alternator checked tomorrow, because after the hazard lights had been on for so long she will no longer switch over for windows or anything else electric and to add an odditiy the battery won't take a charge. but thank you for bringing up the pcm problems because I'll have that checked immediately after if the alternator is good.
​​​​​

 

Did you try charging the battery on a trickle/slow charger or did you just use another vehicle and jumper cables to get it started then idle or drive it for a little bit to attempt charging?? If its the latter,
and if the battery had less than 12volts 2amps when you jumped it,thats likely why the battery wont take a charge.If the battery has a dead cell,
that can also cause it to not take a charge.

 

Tried it with jumper cables. Had the battery checked again. It's apparently good. Handed it over to my father and a professional mechanic he knows and they determined it would be best to get a book and a proper fuse box diagram to know exactly what that fuse controls. Going to also try to plug it up and see what kind of codes it throws. All that tomorrow though, stuck at work today.

 

Sometime a fuse can be blown and not look like it at all. It’s good you know what fuse is blown. My problem is that the instrument cluster simply is not talking at all to the pcm. My pcm does appear to be partially functioning or fully but there is that disconnect that the cluster doesn’t recognize it. I am really wondering if somehow the power is supposed to flow through the alternator in order to get current to part of the pcm. Does anyone know if any of the wires going to the alternator somehow routes back to the pcm? This is my long distance vehicle and I’d like to get it going for the summer. I have the service advance trac check charging system problem.